After a short nights sleep and feeling a little worst for wear we woke up to beautiful blue skies. It was time to make some tracks and begin heading towards the barn. Today we decided to drive about half way to Sens, and for the first time we used a toll road on the trip to expedite the 550 km’s we wanted to drive.
There is not much to talk about today as it was a long drive, and it turns out a holiday in France so there was extra traffic. Ton took a couple of windshield pictures of fall colors as we drove thru the central mastiff a mountainous region in central France.
This highway bridge the Viaduct de Millau jumps over a valley and is about 500 feet high and over two miles long. It is also quite expensive costing €12, but it probably saves you 45 minutes of winding down into the valley and then climbing back out. Instead you jump across the valley in 2 minutes.
Today turned into a maintenance day. We are at a campground in Rivieres and we did not move here. After we were done visiting Albi yesterday we moved to this campground for the night, but to tell the truth when I wrote the blog last night we had no idea what town we were in. When we woke up this morning we decided it would be a good day to take care of cleaning up and doing laundry. By the time we were finished with the laundry we decided to stay another night.
While we were doing the laundry Ton was reading about the local area and noted that this is one of the oldest wine producing areas in France. The area is called Gaillac and the original vineyards were planted during the Roman times, and for the Romans it was the major wine production area in Gaul (France more or less).
So when I extended us for another night I asked the owner of the campground to recommend a winery in the area. She recommended Domaine Escausses. So after a quick stop at Lidl (grocery store), and a stop to replace one of our propane bottles we headed up into the countryside to Domaine Escausses.
The mustard is taller and a little further along than what we saw in Burgundy.
The setting for the winery is right out of a movie. The views are spectacular, and the tasting room is small and quite nice. We were met by the 7th generation winemaker who in addition to pouring wine for us was taking care of her children. We had a great discussion about the unique varieties around Gaillac. Her white wines were superb. Her daughter is about 9 or 10 years old and is already in training to be the 8th generation winemaker. She was kind enough to give us some ideas about places to visit going forward. So even though it was a maintenance day we had time to enjoy another touch of France.
The day started out with a visit to the cheese shop under the supervision of Patrick the campsite owner. He also had a French couple in tow who turned out to be from the Yonne department of Burgundy which is our honorary French home, as that is where François the RV is based. We ended up with about 1/3 of a kilo each of three Cantal cheeses, one is called Cantal, one was called Salers, and the last was a blue cheese from the area which one food critic labeled the best he had ever tasted. The Saler cheese is a variant of Cantal that is only produced in two months when a certain flower is in bloom in the region, as the flowers mixed with the grass makes the cows milk that much better, you have got to love the French! We will give you a report later if the flowers make a big difference.
Patrick leading us down the road to the cheese store.
After two days of cold and damp weather we decided to head south in search of sun and heat. We had originally picked out a target of a town that was about 130km as the crow flies. But when Ron punched it into the GPS, the route said it was over 400km’s. Ron cursed and figured he had punched in the coordinates wrong. But after some further study of the map it turned out that this was really a case of the proverbial you can’t get there from here.
This cow is a Cantal which is a breed unique to the area around Salers.Ton likes Cows and this calf is the cutest she has ever seen, it almost looks like a sheep.
After some further study of maps, Ton proposed the town of Albi as a destination. It was south, the roads looked reasonable, and best of all it was the hometown of Toulose-Lautrec which is both of our favorite French Artist.
The bridge in the foreground was built around 1300 and is still used for traffic today.
The plan for the night was to stay in the Aire in Albi. The GPS led us close to the medieval old town down increasingly narrow roads, and only about 500 yards from the final destination we came to an arch that the road was going under, but the road under the arch was filled with construction equipment. After some studying of the map, and a little maneuvering in tight quarters we headed to our alternative route to the aire. About half way there we fell in behind a Dutch RV that appeared to be going to the same place. Again within about 500 meters of the aire we ran into some more construction and the Dutch pulled over and parked. Ron parked up behind them and knowing that almost all Dutch speak English he walked up and asked them about the aire. It turns out that the road to the aire is under construction and while you can barely make it there, it was full anyway. The husband said that they were thinking about parking for the night at a site we had passed on the way in, but the wife switched from English to Dutch and told him no way they were parking there. I don’t speak a word of Dutch but I didn’t need too to understand that conversation.
Ton and I decided to just leave François where he was and head into Albi to have a look around. Albi turned out to be a real Gem. This is why you do these trips without agendas, to find places like this. Our first stop was the Toulose-Lautrec museum. The museum has an incredible collection of his art, because apparently the Louvre turned down the collection when his parents offered it to them. The museum is housed in the Palais de la Berbie which is the old palace of the archbishop of Albi. The building is as impressive as the art collection.
An example of the art in the Toulose-Lautrec museum.The exterior of the Toulose-Lautrec museum which is in the old palace of the archbishop.
Next door is the Cathedral of Albi, which is the largest brick church in the world. We went into the Cathedral and it was as impressive as the outside. We got a break as one half which usually costs 5 euro to get in was open in preparation for a concert so we got a free look at it.
We are parked in an aire next to a hotel in Fitou France. Do not try to find it on a map unless you have a very detailed map of France, it is somewhere near Narbonne.
After a slow start to the day, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and had a nice conversation with our German neighbors, who were a little confused at first when we did not respond to their initial conversation starters in French. After they sorted out we were not French they effortlessly switched to English. We had a nice time talking to them and getting to meet their dog. They are German versions of snowbirds, spending about 6 months a year in Spain and Portugal.
We decided to head into the town of Rose to have the meal we missed yesterday. We had a fantastic 4 course lunch for €13.50. This was a huge meal including a glass of Sangria for an aperitif, a bowl of mussels for an appetizer, paella for her main dish, and a creme brulee for desert. She had a choice of wine or water and chose wine. Ron had Sangria, calamari for his appetizer, a dish similar to paella but with noodles instead of Rice, and flan, because he was driving he had water. We were wowed with the quantity and quality of the food, and enjoyed people watching while we ate.
The town of Rose, on the Costa Brava, the Costa Brava may require a longer visit in the future.
One correction, all of the fields we were identifying as mustard are actually canola fields, or as they call them here Rapeseed. The yellow fields are still really beautiful.
The plan for today was to visit Roussillon which is another one of the most beautiful villages in France, but we also had to find a place to dump our tanks, add water, and we needed to get some propane. Depending on when we had accomplished all of those things we would decide on the next step for the day.
We were up bright and early, so we headed over to Roussillon and were amongst the first arrivals of the day. Rousillon is famous in France for it’s red earth. It is another pretty village and very upscale, in fact Bradjelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) had their French house here. It was once again nice and worth a visit, but frankly the most interesting thing was watching a truck driver maneuver a large delivery truck down a street with literally inches to spare on each side while shop keepers were pulling in awnings, and moving flower pots out of the way. French truck drivers really earn their living here on these narrow streets and roads.
The buildings in Rousillon all have this red tint to them from the surrounding earth.
We have been trying to visit an olive oil factory for about a week and thought we had found one on the way out of Rousillon. After Ron and the GPS had several arguments about the best way we finally arrived at an olive oil factory quite near to where we spent the night. It was one of our disappointments of the trip. The staff was not very helpful, and the promised tour did not exist, so after a short walk thru we were out to François and deciding on our next step.
During the drive we passed thru a nice canyon between Gordes and Orange.
Ron found a winery in the Chateauneuf du Pape area that was a French Passion site, and we decided to see if we could stay there. French Passion sites are provided with our rental, and are wineries and farms throughout France that let you stay on their property for “free” if you are a member. The catch is that you are highly encouraged to sample their product. In the case of our stay tonight for roughly the cost of a normal campground we purchased two very nice bottles of wine, and got to enjoy a beautiful warm evening on a very peaceful winery in Provence. It is worth every penny.
Some of the vineyard at Chateau Cabrieres. If you look carefully you will see the incredible amount of stones in the vineyards. This apparently is what makes Chateauneuf du Pape wines famous.
Today we headed towards another one of the most beautiful villages in France. Gordes is considered a must see stop in Provence by most of the travel writers.
After an uneventful drive including a stop at a grocery store to replenish some critical items, and wine. We headed up to Gordes. As advertised it is quite striking, but has definitely been discovered by the rich and famous. A lot of the old farm houses have undergone renovation to make them appropriately comfortable for the well off. Ron was looking at a listing of homes for sale, and they were running 1.2 to 2.5 million Euro. As we walked into town we passed a beautiful 5 star hotel that we later checked and found out rooms could be had for around $500 per night.
The view of Gordes as you approach on the main road. The white umbrellas are the $500 per night hotel
Having said that I can see why people are willing to spend that kind of money for Gordes. It really is striking and the town has an old world feel that is pretty magical. We arrived just as the weekly market was packing up for the day. We really enjoyed poking around town, and the views were worth the walk. At the end we ducked into a coffee shop for a beer and a coffee and sat on a balcony about 100 feet above a gorge. We were really enjoying it until a couple of groups sat down next to us and about 5 people simultaneously lit up cigarettes. There is a lot I like about the culture here and one of them is the abundance of outside dining, unfortunately smoking is still allowed in the outside dining, so Ton and I normally find ourselves inside to avoid the smoke.
A sample of the “roads” in Gordes.
We walked back to François for the night and enjoyed our free aire. Tonight our neighbors are mostly British, and we had a nice conversation with a couple from Birmingham.
Ton really liked these stone fences with the tops of stones set on end. This one was near our aire for the night.
Today was about Flamingos. After some muddling about in the morning and doing some laundry we were off to the Camargue which is a large delta where the Rhone River empties into the Mediterranean. It is a famous bird sanctuary.
There is an ornithological park as you drive into the delta, and we decided to stop and take a look not knowing what to expect. It turned out to be a great walk where we were surrounded by many different kinds of birds but the star attraction for the average Joe (or Pierre) were the flamingo’s. There were hundreds of them on display. Ton wore her battery out shooting pictures of them.
The bodies are slightly pink, but the wings are quite striking as this bird is showing. These are Rose Flamingo’s native to Africa, and Europe
It was a really nice walk and in addition to the flamingos there were a lot of Heron’s. In fact the serious photographers with the long lenses were ignoring the flamingos and shooting the Herons. There must of been something significant over there, but we did not figure it out.
All of the serious photographers were concentrated around this area, we are not sure what the attraction was.
After a couple of hours of exploring and pictures we headed down the road to the sea to visit the town of Saintes Maries de la Mer. Driving in it did not make much of an impression on us. But when we pulled into the aire we figured there must be something to the town as there were easily 70 or 80 RV’s in the aire. We took a walk and it was a seaside resort, not a particularly fancy one, but pleasant. We decided that we would have dinner tonight to compare French seafood with Spanish. Spanish won.
The Mediterranean is apparently warm even in April, as the water was full of kids playing.
We decided to shift a little south to another part of Provence. The town of St. Remy de Provence was highly recommended to us, so here we are.
St. Remy turned out to be a very nice but touristy town. But it did have an interesting walk themed around Van Gogh. He spent a year here in a sanitarium trying to clear his head, and did some really nice painting. The walk had you follow a road out of town to the sanitarium where he stayed and periodically showed you sites where Van Gogh had painted pictures. It was quite fascinating and at several of the stops you could really see quite clearly the setting he used.
We think this is the setting for this picture.
At the end of the road was the sanitarium where he stayed, and it is still functioning as a sanitarium today having been founded around 1200 AD. The room where Van Gogh stayed is on display, as are the gardens that inspired some of his paintings. We really enjoyed ourselves and found the place fascinating.
Van Gogh’s room in the sanitarium.
On the way back we stopped at the ruins of the Roman settlement of Glanum. We poked around a bit and saw the Arch of Triumph, but decided to pass on visiting the Roman ruins.
Part of the Roman Arc, the Arc itself is a slightly more worn version of the one in Orange yesterday
As we passed thru town we decided that this one of the more upscale towns we had been in, and it reflected in the price of the restaurants. So we decided to postpone our Provence meal, and headed back to François for a very late lunch, and a siesta.
We had an adventure today that we did not at all anticipate. Our plan was to shift about 40km’s from Pont du Gard to Orange to visit the Roman Theater in Orange. Enroute we were going to stop at a Carrefour to get some gas. Actually sounds like one of our easier days from a travel point of view.
We were rolling along on nice wide roads when we came into a little village. The roads were kind of narrow but we were used to the roads narrowing going into little villages. Then Ron missed a turn, the GPS reprogrammed and the roads were narrow but one way so Ron decided to follow the reprogram, and then we came to a point where the GPS wanted us to turn down a walkway…big problem. Ron parked and since we had come down a series of one way roads we could just not turn around and go back the way we had come. Ron on foot followed the one way road thru the village for 2 or 3 hundred yards and it looked doable, so back to François. Ton backed Ron down the road for the 20 or so yards to the turn, and just as we were getting ready to head down the road a fellow jumped in front of us and in rapid fire French told us that the GPS was wrong and we could not go that way. There was only one way out and he would show us, or words to that effect. Just as he was turning us around in very tight quarters another car came up behind us, and we managed to let him squeeze past, but rather than carry on he got out and began to help us turn around and get pointed in the right direction also. Ron was responding to commands of droit (right) and gauche(left), and a lot of vezzies (afterwards Ton and I decided it was the French version of come on, or keep going), we got turned around passing within inches of several parked cars, and liberally using the sidewalk (all two feet of it) when necessary. We got pointed at an opening that was maybe four inches wider than Françoise with both mirrors folded in. The two guys gave me a resounding Voila!, and a thumbs up. We squeezed down the alley, and popped back out on our nice wide main road. We shouted some Merci beaucoups (thanks much) at them as they were walking away, but without them our day may have been really a mess, so to the two anonymous French gentlemen, merci beaucoup.
This is about the width of the road we were squeezing François down.
We arrived at Orange 20 minutes later, and visited Carrefour which is turning into Ton’s favorite grocery in France. Stocked up with food for a few days we were going to get fuel, but it looked like a tight fit and Ron was a little skittish so fuel is tomorrow.
We finally made it to the Roman theater in Orange and it was really interesting and beautiful. It was built in the 1st century AD, and is incredibly huge for that era. The grounds will hold 10,000 people, and the theater wall behind behind the stage is over 100 feet tall. The scale is hard to describe and Ton had a tough time capturing it on film. We followed the audio guide thru out and it was fascinating. The theater is still used today for concerts and performances. The facade of the theater is also grandiose but it is undergoing renovation and we did not get a look at it.
The wall at the back of the stage of the Theater in Orange, it was one of the few walls that have survived from ancient Roman theatersThe seating area of the theater. It holds over 10,000.
After the theater we passed by the ancient Arc de Triumph of Orange. This Arch was built by veterans of Cesar Augustus legions who settled in Orange after they completed their service. It is to honor veterans of the Gallic Wars around 24 AD. We had actually passed it as it is in a roundabout on the main road in town on the way to the campground. But this time we were on foot and had time to take some pictures.
The Arc de Triomphe of Orange, built by the legionaries of Cesar Augustus.
Today we needed to get serious about going east. Our plan for the past few days has been to head to Provence, but we never quite got ourselves going that way. So today we abandoned our backcountry roads and jumped on the motorway for almost 200km’s to get to Pont du Gard.
This site is one of the most famous Roman sites in France, and features on a lot of travel ads for France. We decided that this would be a good place to begin our visit of Provence and southeast France.
We arrived in the early afternoon and it was unseasonably warm with temperatures in the high 70’s low 80’s. After a nice lunch Ton declared it was siesta time and Pont du Gard could wait.
Around 4 pm we wandered down to see the site. Pont du Gard is a three tier aqueduct that was built around 19BC. It stands over 160ft high above the river Gardon and was used to supply the city of Nimes. The aqueduct that the Pont du Gard supported was over 30 miles long.
It is quite an impressive structure and very beautiful. The French are certainly much more laid back about managing historical things like this, and the atmosphere was more relaxed and informal than we are used to. People were swimming under the bridge picnicking on the grounds around it, there was not a policeman or ranger in site to keep order.
We walked back in the evening to get some more shots as Ton thought the sunset would be pretty there. She was right!
We have a friend who arrived in Paris a few days ago. Ton and her have been keeping in touch and sharing some photos. We thought they were going on to Savona from Paris, but last night she sent Ton a message saying they were going to Mice today. Ton showed me the message and said do you think she means Nice? A short phone call confirmed that she was heading our way and would arrive on a train about 1:15. So our plans for today were set with a happy meeting of friends.
In the morning we took care of our last laundry for the trip, anything that gets dirty from this point is going home with us. The weather was threatening all day but the rain held off in the morning. As we were locking up François to head to the rail station a French couple walked up and hit me with a long and complex blast of French. When he took a breath I told him that I was very sorry but I do not speak French. They switched to English and we had a nice conversation about traveling both here and in the US.
We arrived at the train station a few minutes before the train from Paris arrived and were able to meet our friends at the platform. It was a nice surprise for them as our friend from Portland Boo had not told the other two couples she was traveling with that we were in Nice. After saying hello to Moo, Nit, Jeap and Dit we headed off to their hotels.
We love traveling.
After they checked in we headed off to the promenade and old town for a bit of sight seeing and catching up. They are on an extensive trip that started in Paris, they are heading on to Italy to catch a trans-Atlantic cruise to Brazil, after they arrive they are going to linger in South America for a couple of weeks. Ton and I are a little jealous.
Ton and one of her very best friends from Oregon Boo.
Walking along the promenade and the old town of Nice was fun as we exchanged travel stories. The promenade was empty as while it was not raining yet the wind was blowing hard and it was cold. Despite this everyone was having a good time. Ton and Boo were having a great time talking as they walked arm in arm thru town. I think it was good for Ton to have a friend to talk to instead of me and in Thai instead of English.
After a few hours we realized that we had left the key to the gate for the campground in François. The campground we are staying in is gated and they close the gate at 7pm, without the key we would not have access, so we left a little earlier than we wanted to, but this turned out to be a good thing.
As we were walking to the train station it started to rain. The weather report today was pretty ominous actually with high winds and heavy rain called for. It turns out while the wind and rain was delayed when it hit, it hit with a vengeance. When we got off the train in Villeneuve we were hit with a gust of wind of 20 plus miles per hour and heavy sideways rain, umbrellas were collapsing and people were actually staggering as they stepped off the train. The walk back to François was in a ferocious rain and wind storm, with flashes of lightning to add to the fun. By the time we arrived at François we were soaked to the skin, and now the bathroom is full of wet clothes.
Last night we were discussing what to do today, and as we often do when planning things we consulted the weather channel app. It told us today was the last sunny day we should expect on this trip. So we had to make a decision, we are positioned equidistant between Nice and Cannes so we had to decide which town would we spend our last sunny and relatively warm day on. As with all of these type of decisions I left it up to Ton and went to sleep. When I woke up in the morning she said Nice, and gave me an agenda.
We started off with our mile walk to the train station thru the massive condo’s. This morning we discussed again the architectural merits of the buildings, and we both admitted that the buildings had grown on us. Ton said she looked at her pictures last night and began to see some of the subtleties of the buildings that are hidden by their sheer size. While we will not be purchasing a condo there anytime soon we can see ourselves living there if the opportunity arose.
The condos that have grown on both of us as we spend more time around them.
When we arrived at the train station we found a representative of SNCF (the French National Train Company) posting a notice on the still broken ticket machine. He said that the construction near the station had cut the power to the machine, and to his office so he could not issue tickets. We asked him what we should do, and he said just get on the train and if the conductor comes by tell him you got on here and they will sell you a ticket on the train. I said what if we do not see a conductor, he said the ride is on us! On the platform I told Ton that we should take a picture of the notice on the ticket machine just to be safe, a lady on the platform overheard us and asked in accented English what was going on. We told her and she said she would go with Ton to take a picture also. When she returned I noticed she had a Johns Hopkins University sweater and it turns out she works in their Washington DC office and was also a visitor to France for a couple of weeks. She was taking advantage of the good weather to head to Monaco for the day.
Ton’s itinerary for the day consisted of visiting the Central Market, an ice cream shop, and another walk on the Promenade Anglais. The first stop was the central market where we poked thru the vegetable stalls and souvenir stands. Our only purchase was a couple of nice local themed shopping bags. We were drawn to a stall selling a dish called Socca which looked a lot like a dish we had eaten in Lucca that we really enjoyed and never learned the name of.
Flowers for sale in the Market in Nice.
We were tempted but we had ice cream to eat so we set off to the ice cream shop. We saw one branch of the shop and it was closed, but I told Ton not to worry as this was not the main one, and the main one would surely be open. When we arrived there were several workers working cleaning the chairs and tables but they were not open. I asked one of the workers when they were opening and he cheerfully replied “next year”! It turns out they were cleaning up before their winter break. So Ton’s luck with restaurants continues.
The special bicycle used to deliver Socca to the market. The cover goes over the pan of Socca as it is driven from the restaurant to the market.
We were unfazed because this put Socca back on the table. We found the restaurant that produces the Socca for the market on a back ally in the old town. Inside there were three generations of the family working. The father was ferrying giant platters of Socca on a specially made bicycle to the market, the son was doing the cooking and serving in the restaurant, and the grandson (who Ton spent the meal wondering why he was not in school) served the customers outside. Socca is a simple dish made of chickpea flour, water and olive oil poured onto a large shallow pan and cooked in a wood fired oven. Like the dish we had in Lucca earlier (called Cecina in Tuscany) it was absolutely delicious and cheap.
A pan of Socca going into the oven.
We spent the rest fo the day wandering the old town and along the Promenaid Anglais. Ton really loved the Promenade and kept saying lets go just a bit further and we will stop. At one point I sat in a chair and she went down on the beach and spent half an hour happily taking pictures in all directions.
The beach and Promenade Anglais in Nice.
After we had walked about 10 miles we decided to head back to François and take it easy for the rest of the day. It was a simple day but the kind of day that makes great memories.
An interesting statue in front of one of the grand hotels along the Promenade Anglais.
We finally had to reluctantly leave Italy behind. We will talk more about our impressions of Italy later, but we both found it wonderful. We had read a lot of negatives about Italy, and were prepared for a tougher experience than we had had in other places. It turns out Italy was pretty easy to move around in and we did not experience anything that would cause us to discourage anyone from traveling there. On the contrary we found Italy to be a wonderful country and we encourage anyone who is thinking of Europe to make sure they include Italy in the itinerary.
Arrivederci Italia.
We woke up to sunshine, so we made an early start towards Nice. The drive over was uneventful but Nice made a bad first impression on us. First the year round campground that we planned to stay at after much research to make sure it was open, was closed. One warning if you are traveling in November call ahead and confirm that places that say they are open are really open. Luckily because of our research we had a second choice in mind and it was only 10 minutes away, and most importantly they are open year round as advertised. The next negative to our first impression of Nice was at the train station. We walked about a mile to the nearest station, which is a minor station. In Italy every station no matter how small had someone working there, this one had a nice lobby with an information window, but it was closed with a sign saying they were open random hours during the week. No problem we are serious travelers and can get tickets from any automatic machine. The one thing that will stop intrepid travelers like us is if the only ticket machine at the station is malfunctioning (actually completely dead, powered down). So now we were stuck, our first temptation was to just get on the the next train and if we did run into a conductor tell him our tale, but not really speaking French this seemed risky and could end up costing us an awful lot. At this point Ton saw an advertisement for an App the train company in France has where you can buy tickets on line so we tried that. Surprisingly it worked, and armed with our app bought ticket on our phone we boarded the next train to Nice.
As a quick editorial, one of the things we liked about Italy was the lack of automation, you bought tickets from people, who were able to answer questions, point you in the right direction and deliver a smile. Maybe that is why even though things are rougher around the edges in Italy we enjoyed it so much, because we were dealing with people and not machines and apps.
The beach in Nice is this pea gravel and not sand, but it does not detract from people heading to the beach. The gravel makes a really interesting sound as the waves recede.
Nice is much larger than I envisioned, somehow I had an overgrown Monaco in mind and not the big metropolis we found ourselves in. But it is beautiful and the waterfront esplanade is one of the best we have ever seen anywhere in the world. It is truly magnificent and I can see how you could fall in love with a city that goes out of its way to embrace the sea in the way Nice does.
The extensive waterfront esplanade of Nice, the best one we have seen in our travels.
We ended up walking more today than any day on this trip, just about exactly 10 miles. We climbed up to an overlook on one side of the city and waterfront and were rewarded with some fantastic views of both Nice, and the Alps in the background.
City view of Nice, with Italian style Duomo in the center.
When we arrived back to our broken home train station of Villeneuve-Loubet I told Ton I thought there was a better route home. When we were walking to the train station in the morning we had spotted three very large and striking condominium towers. We both find them striking but neither one of us will own up to liking them. We walked thru them on the way back and found a giant marina behind them, so they are catering to a very upscale clientele. It was sunset and the sky and the views over the Mediterranean were eye catching. From one beach we were able to look at the sea, and turn and look at the Alps with the pink light of the setting sun highlighting the snow caps. It was worth the diversion for a great sunset.
The striking condos and upper middle class yachts.
There really is not much to talk about today. We needed to be in Toulon at 3:30 pm to catch our ferry to Sicily, so there was no time for exploring. We spent the morning poking around the campground taking care of cleaning, dumping tanks, and filling tanks. At 11:30 we took off for Toulon looking to fill François up, and maybe do a quick shop for some of our favorite French things before we depart for Italy.
Everything was going to plan until it was time to get fuel. Periodically our American credit cards are refused at French fuel dispensers. There is no rhyme or reason about when it will happen, but it happened today. In the past we were able to overcome this by using a debit card we travel with for emergencies, but today they even refused that. So we were stuck on a tour of fuel stations of Toulon until we found one with a human being who could process our credit cards. Five stations later we finally found a station with an attendant and filled up François.
François and Ron waiting to board the ferry to Sicily.
Fuel taken care of we headed over to the ferry. It is the largest ferry we have been on and is almost like a mini-cruise ship, complete with bars and multiple restaurants. So after settling in we went up top to watch our departure from Toulon on the way to Trapani Italy.
Today François stayed in place while we visited the neighboring city of St. Tropez. It was a short bus ride to St. Tropez, but it was a change from middle class to uber rich. Port Grimaud is a pretty city on the same bay as St. Tropez, but while prosperous it features 40 foot boats and nice condos. 5km’s away St.Tropez features 100 foot plus yachts, and helicopters scurrying over carrying their owners to their estates.
We can see why St. Tropez is such a hit with the jet setters as the climate and the setting is spectacular. The water in the bay is crystal clear and generally calm. It became one of the “it” places in the world largely because of Brigitte Bardot in the 1960’s. Several of her famous movies were filmed in this area and put St. Tropez on the map. It is a pretty little town with lots of restaurants and high end shops lining the waterfront. There are a lot of people walking up and down the harbor gawking at the yachts. The actual uber rich were out of site or blending in with the crowds.
The harbor in St. Tropez with some of the smaller yachts.
Ton had two things she wanted to accomplish; she wanted to visit the road named after one of her favorite authors Antoine de Saint-Exupèry, and to take a picture of a statue of Brigitte that is in town. After we walked thru the town we headed out to find the road dedicated to Antoine. He was Ton’s favorite author when she was studying French. The Little Prince is his most famous work. Antoine was a true renaissance man as in addition to being a great writer he was also an early aviator and explorer. It is located next to the old fort on the hill above town and had a great view of the town and the bay. We both find that we find small connections to our youth by exploring these towns and it adds some fun to the trip.
The signpost for Antoine de Saint-Exupèry, with a holder for his fans to leave flowers.
After our walk around town and up to the fort we were hungry. Ton had two restaurants on her list, but one had gone out of business, and the other was closed, and as we were running out of time for lunch we popped into a Thai restaurant. This was our first Thai restaurant in Europe and we left a little disappointed.
Where we should have had lunch.
The final stop for the day was to be a statue to Brigitte Bardot, but after walking the streets looking for it (including seeing several French restaurants that only added to our disappointment with lunch), we came to the statue of Brigitte and had a good laugh. When we first got off the bus we walked thru a little square with a cute statue of a women nude, and Ton took several pictures of it as she really liked it. It turns out this was the famous Brigitte statue that we were looking for. Brigitte while long retired still lives in St. Tropez.
The statue of Brigitte Bardot who helped put St. Tropez on the map.
Since we were next to the bus station we headed back to the campground for a light dinner and a walk along the beach at sunset.
St. Tropez is full of art galleries. Some of the artists looked quite talented.
Another day of big driving, and me being clueless. We wanted to get down somewhere near Toulon as our ferry to Sicily leaves from there on October 9. Ton thought hanging around near the rich at Saint Tropez would be fun. Port Grimaud is only about 10 km’s from Saint Tropez and would let people of our economic stature hang around; so that was the target.
Before the trip I thought we needed an oil change as my research indicated that the oil was due to be changed at 45,000 km’s. I had planned to have the oil changed when we got the new tires for François but I had a conversation with someone who managed a fleet of vehicles like François who said that oil change was 50.000 km’s so I decided to hold off until we returned from Italy. It turns out my research was right and about halfway to Port Grimaud we got a flashing red oil can on the dash of François. In my experience anything on the dash that is red and related to oil needs immediate attention. We pulled into the first rest area on the autoroute and I checked the oil. It was low, but not out so I added a couple of liters and expected the light to go out. It did not so as I drove south Ton began looking for a Fiat dealer or mechanic and she came up with one. Well after about a 40 minute detour we came to the location of the Fiat mechanic according to Google, and it was a brand new KFC. Since all of the dealers who could deal with François were on lunch break anyway I took the time to do some more research and it turns out that the flashing red oil can indicates the need to change the oil and not a problem with the oil, so we decided to carry on with our trip and find a place to change the oil when we get to Italy.
Sunset at the beach for our campground. Saint Tropez is across the bay.
So after a little drama, we are now in a very large campground next to the Mediterranean Sea, and looking forward to heading into Saint Tropez tomorrow to see how the 1% live.
Today we are visiting the ultimate palace in Europe. As I mentioned yesterday we have visited many palaces that advertised themselves as the Versailles of
Last night we purchased tickets to visit Versailles on Friday after consulting the weather forecast and seeing that it was supposed to start raining at
Yesterday at the Bastogne Military Museum there was an exterior display commemorating the 35th anniversary of the Berlin Wall. There were three Trabant Cars that
We visited Alsace for the first time in 2019 and it is one of our favorite parts of France. While the tourism infrastructure is well developed it does not feel overrun like other parts of Europe. We really enjoyed the food and the wine in the region as well. Also, while a couple of the entries are marked as Kehl Germany we were based in Germany while we were visiting Strasbourg France.
After I published the blog last night we did something we rarely do, which is go out at night. But the Port Captain strongly recommended that we head back to Stanislas Square after the sun goes down. We were both glad we listened to him. It is a relative short walk to the square, but we noticed that the character of the town had changed. The day town crowd was business people and tourists,
Now that we have been able to move on from the issue with the French court system we can get back to what we come to Europe for, traveling and exploring new places. We were both ready to get going this morning and were up bright and early so we were on the road well before 10 am which is our normal departure time. The first 90 kilometers of our drive today was along
We had visited Strasbourg on a previous trip and had really enjoyed it despite the weather being really poor. We decided to give it another look today despite the weather forecast calling for rain. We woke up a little late to some rain tapping on the roof of François, and by the time we got organized to leave it was 10:00. The drive to Strasbourg was 400km’s (about 250 miles) but the road was
Today was a day of rest for François but not us. The weather is starting to wear us out a little. We shut in yesterday to let the heavy rain pass thru. Yesterday the weather app was saying it would be better today. They were wrong, today was just as miserable, we had periods of very heavy rain mixed with showers, and the temperatures were in the low 50’s. Our Stellplatz (German for
Today we left France for the day. We are parked up in Kehl Germany as it was the best option to visit Strasbourg France. The problem was that when we woke up the weather report had gotten much worst. They were now calling for heavy rain and high winds due to a “Bomb Cyclone’ that was hitting southern France. I think a bomb cyclone is a new more dramatic way to say cold front,
Colmar is by far the largest city we have stayed in so far on this trip while it is only 65,000 people most of the places we have been staying have populations less than 2,000 so it felt quite big. The camp site we are staying at is about 2km’s from the center of the city so we even wimped out and bought day bus passes. It turned out to be a good idea
Today we shifted a whopping 10km’s to Colmar. We did make a side trip to another Alsatian town on the way to Colmar. We both woke up about 5 am smelling smoke. I lay there wondering if something was burning when Ton also woke up and asked if we were on fire. This motivated me to get up and check to see if anything was burning in François. It turns out that we
The weather had gotten a little better overnight after heavy rain as we fell asleep. While it was still pretty cold and cloudy it was not raining. Today we visited Riquewihr and Ribeauville. They are both listed as must see villages in Alsace. The first stop was Riquewihr as we could walk there from our campground. As we were walking into town Ton stopped me and pointed at what I thought was a
The weather has been pretty mediocre. Nearly every day has had some showers and most days the highs have been in the 50’s and lows in the low 40’s so we have been using more gas than normal. Today was supposed to be particularly bad with rain pretty much all day, highs in the low 40’s and lows around freezing. When we woke up this morning the weather app had a pretty ominous warning
Burgundy reminds both of us of Oregon. The land looks a lot like the Willamette Valley where we live, and they grow the same wine grapes as Oregon so we love the wine. So far we have been storing our vehicle in Burgundy near Sens, so there will be multiple entries about this area.
Today we planned to spend at the Louvre. Of all of the places in Paris Ron wanted to spend some extra time there as he had never been.
It is an overwhelming place in many ways. The building is huge, but the vast majority of people are there to see the two or three must see things, the Mona Lisa, David, and the Italian art. Those things are clustered in one area of the museum, and that area is packed. We did see all of those things, but the crowds were a little too much for Ron. The other wings of the building are nearly empty and there is a lot of good art.
This is not the crowded part of the Louvre.
After about 4 hours we had enough and decided to get some lunch. Ton was interested in getting some Moroccan food, and we found a good restaurant. We had our most expensive meal in France, and the meal was good. After lunch we decided to head back to Montmartre, and grab a couple of last minute things we wanted to take back to Oregon with us.
I think we enjoyed walking around Montmartre nearly as much as we did the Louvre for the day. We made a couple of trips to grocery stores in the area, as well as taking one last stroll (Ton would say climb) to the cathedral. We had our final dinner at an African restaurant across from the hotel that Ton had her eye since we checked in The meal was excellent and the spices were really interesting. Ton’s fish was delicious.
